164 RED-EYED VIREO. 
pouchlike affairs of strips of pliable bark, bits of dead 
wood, plant-fibers, tendrils, fine grasses, ete., firmly inter- 
woven and suspended from the arms of a forked twig. 
The eggs are white, with a few black or brownish black 
spots, chiefly about the larger end. 
The Vireos are an exclusively American fortify, and 
number some fifty species, of which seven reach the 
Red-eyed Vireo, Northeastern States. Of these, by far 
Vireo olivaceuz. the most common is the Red-eyed 
plies LAE Vireo. There are few favorable locali- 
ties in eastern North America where, in the summer, 
one may not hear the cheerful song of this bird. Still, 
it is so well protected by the foliage, with which ‘its 
plumage agrees in color, that to those whose ear is not 
attuned to the music of birds it is unknown. But listen 
near some grove of elms or maples, and you will not fail 
to hear its song—a somewhat broken, rambling recitative, 
which no one has described so well as Wilson Flagg, who 
calls this bird the Preacher, and interprets its notes as 
“You see it—you know it—do you hear me /—do you be- 
lieve it?” The Red-eye evidently has an inquiring mind, 
for he never tires of asking these questions. He not 
only sings all day, but seems unaffected by the heat of 
summer, and at midday is often the only bird to be heard. 
One would imagine that few birds had a more even tem- 
perament than this calm-voiced singer, but when annoyed 
he utters a complaining whang—a sound which is a good 
indication that something is wrong in the bird world. 
The Red-eye winters in the tropics, and reaches us in 
the spring about May 1, remaining until October 15. 
A near relative of the Red-eye’s is the Warbling 
Vireo—a somewhat smaller bird, with a brown, in place 
of red eye, and without the black margin above the white 
eye-line which can be so easily seen in the Red-eye. The 
Warbling Vireo is the less common of the two, and is 
